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Wednesday, 3 April 2013

#4 Memorable Mispronunciations

'Daddy cook on the barcaboo?'
As a little guy, Carter was fascinated by the barbecue, to the point of being totally captivated every time Daddy cooked dinner on it. But, barcaboo was Jack's funny mispronunciation, not Carter's.

The perfect Xmas gift. His very own barcaboo.

'I love masawnya.'
Carter is a pasta man. He loves all noodle dishes, lasagna included. But, masawnya was his sister's mispronunciation, not his.

He's really 'into' his masawnya!

Makamoki is another one of his favourite pasta dishes, but makamoki is a mispronunciation that my mom and dad heard from me, not from Carter. Preschoolers expand their vocabularies by experimenting with new and larger words that they've been exposed to. As a result, the path leading toward their school days is paved with loads of cute, funny and memorable mispronunciations. I'll never forget Jack's barcaboo blunder, or Taylor's masawnya mishap. For Carter, I simply won't have those same gratifying memories.

According to the Canadian Association for Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologist (CASLPA), a toddler's vocabulary consists of roughly 200 words by age two, and up to 2000 words by age four.

Carter had two words by age three. Those words were kuh-kuh (cookie) and Gack (Jack). He uttered them a few times and then we never heard them again.
To this day the First Words page in Carter's baby book remains blank. There was simply nothing to write on the lines provided for First Sentence, Favourite Expressions, and Mispronunciations. I suppose I could go back and fill in the blanks with some of the things that Carter has expressed over the past year and a half with his talker, but that seems unfitting. It's his baby book after all, and he's almost ten years old. The only words Carter speaks these days are 'ya' and 'uh oh' neither of which is a mispronunciation. Neither of which is very memorable.Not being able to talk means no memorable mispronunciations.

Do you have any memorable mispronunciations?

Disclaimer: Views in the Not Being Able to Speak series are derived from my personal experience with Carter. I do not speak on behalf of others with complex communication needs. It is not my intent to minimize or disregard the power of expression that can be found through the use of augmentative and alternative forms of communication.